Transpoesie - News

Come and listen to poets from Austria, the Faroe Islands, Hungary, Iceland, Luxembourg, Poland and Portugal at the closing night of Transpoesie. This annual poetry festival celebrates the diversity of languages. translation of their work is projected as they read it out to the people gathered.

• Anna TEREK (Hungary)

Anna TERÉK (1984) was born in Bačka Topola, Vojvodina, (former) Yugoslavia. She graduated in Psychology (MA) at the University Eötvös Loránd in Budapest, Hungary, in 2012. She has been working since 2015 as a school psychologist in Budapest. Her first collection of poetry Tear of the smile (Mosolyszakadás) was published in Vojvodina in 2007. For her second collection of poetry Danube street (Duna utca) published in 2011, she earned the Ervin Sinkó Prize. Besides poetry Anna Terék writes also dramas. Her first drama Jelentkezzenek a legjobbak!/Neka se jave najbolji!/The bests should be the first! was presented in 2012, at the Serbian National Theater. Her first collection of dramas was published in 2016. She is currently a holder of the István Örkény Drama Writing Fellowship and translating a Croatian novel into Hungarian. Her next collection of poetry Dead women (Halott nők) was recently published in the spring 2017. 

• Oddfríður Marni RASMUSSEN (Faroes) 

Oddfríður Marni RASMUSSEN, born in 1969, grew up in the village of Sandur on the island of Sandoy in the Faroe Islands and works today as a primary school teacher. He has published 13 collections of poetry, the first in 1994. From 1998 to 2000 he attended the Writers’ School (Forfatterskolen) in Copenhagen. In 2001, Rasmussen together with Danish photographer, Ole Banke, produced a book of poems and photos entitled Tað føroyska ljósið (The Faroese Light). They collaborated again in 2016 to publish a second work of poetry and photography, Gandakendu Føroyar (Enchanted Faroe Islands). Oddfríður M. Rasmussen is co-founder and co-editor of the Faroese literary journal, Vencil, which since 2006 has been publishing new Faroese writing as well as world literature in Faroese translation. A special edition of Vencil with English translations of contemporary Faroese poetry and prose was published in 2011. For further details of Oddfriður Marni Rasmussen’s most recent publications, see the publisher Sprotin.

• Maria DO ROSÁRIO PEDREIRA (Portugal) 

Maria Do Rosário Pedreira was born in Lisbon in 1959. She studied Modern Languages and Literature, French and English Studies at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Lisbon. She has been working as a teacher for five years, which brought her to the decision to start writing for young people. Her editorial career began in 1987; since then she was employed as editorial assistant, editor, director of publications and publisher. As a writer she works in three directions: young adult literature, romance and poetry. She has published more than thirty books and was awarded several literary prizes.

• Krzysztof SIWCZYK (Poland)

Krzysztof Siwczyk was born in 1977. He read Cultural Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice. He is a columnist and a reviewer, and has published two books of literary criticism. In 1999, he played the lead role in Lech Majewski’s feature film about the suicidal poet Rafał Wojaczek (nominated for the European Film Awards, Paris 2000). Other films he played in include Bluesmani (“Bluesmen”), the multi-generational project Czuję głód (“I Feel Hunger”) or Wydalony (“Expelled”) – a film based on motifs from Beckett, which Siwczyk co-produced with Adam Sikora and in which, again, he was the lead actor. Since 2000, he has been a member of the European Film Academy, Polish Writers’ Association and Pen Club. He is the Artistic Director of Krakow's International Miłosz Poetry Festival.

• Gerður Kristný (Iceland) 

Gerdur Kristný (b. 1970) is among the leading contemporary writers of Iceland, accolated  with numerous awards for her non-fictional work as well as her children books, novels and poetry. For the past two decades she has produced a vast oeuvre, ranging from journalistic works on various subjects to six volumes of poetry, for which she is best known internationally. For her modern poetical rewriting of Norse myths, the poetic cycle Bloodhoof, she received the Icelandic Literature Awards and was nominated for the prestigious Nordic Council Awards. Gerdur Kristný’s poetry has been translated into about thirty languages and she has participated in numerous festivals and residencies, such as IWP in Iowa, USA, and the Ingmar Bergman residency on Fåro Island in Sweden. 

• Florent TONIELLO (Luxembourg)

Florent Toniello was born in 1972 in Lyon (France), between the Rhône and the Saône. In another life, he was an IT manager for a transnational company, mainly in Brussels. He moved to the banks of the Alzette river in Luxembourg in 2012. He often hides behind others’ texts, proofreading and translating for various publishers and magazines. But he writes poetry too: a regular contributor to La Tribune du Jelly Rodger, a poetical propaganda magazine, he can be read in anthologies and many poetry journals such as Recours au poème, Comme en poésie, Realpoetik, Festival permanent des mots, Arpa, Traction-brabant, Revue Méninge or Revu. In 2015, Flo[ts], published by Phi in Luxembourg, won the first prize in the National Literary Competition. His second book, Ptérodactyle en cage, was adapted as a musical and poetry show that premiered during the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Printemps des poètes – Luxembourg, the Grand-Duchy organisation dedicated to bringing poetry closer to the general public. 

• Mieze MEDUSA (Austria)

Mieze Medusa (born 1975) is an Austrian author, Slam poet, rapper, and publisher. She is a main pillar in the Austrian Hip-Hop- and Poetry-Slam-scene, and has been organizing and hosting various Poetry Slam formats ever since 2004, such as the longest running Poetry Slam “textstrom” in Vienna, the “KULTUM” slam in Graz, as well as a number of other slam in various theatres, museums, and other cultural institutions.

>>> Balassi Institute | Treurenberg 10, 1000 Bruxelles (voir le plan)

>>> Thursday 9 November 2017 - 20:00 > 21:30 

>>> FREE

THIS EVENT ON THE BALASSI INSTITUTE'S WEBSITE